Tuesday, October 20, 2015

English timber

Why is it that Timber from America is cheaper and easier to get hold of than English timber despite the fact that its all around us?

Its cheaper apparently to get a tree cut down thousands of miles away, have it dried, shipped across the ocean burning countless fossil fuels in the process and delivered to my door than buying some that has been felled in this country. Which surely would be another sale and full process doing its little bit to boost the local economy.

We have some beautiful timbers in this country and we don't really use them. Everything that comes down generally goes for fire wood or left to rot. Well we are going to try to do some better things with some local wood that we can get our hands on.

A year back we had a call about an ash tree that blew down in Royston. So we tooled up got ourselves some chainsaw gear and a little bit of wood cutting know how and headed off to slice it up. Now this proved to be easier said than done but the results really were stunning. We now have some beautiful boards of ash in stock ready to turn into furniture.

Over the next year we plan to push this even further and produce some designs from a variety of English timbers. We have already produced some worktops for our latest kitchen build from Whitwell oak and a coffee table from the Royston ash. Sitting drying we have some Royston and Kimpton walnut and a small cherry trunk ready to mill. I must say its exciting, a long slow process but exciting none the less. To have a piece of furniture made from a tree growing locally for possibly hundreds of years couldn't be more of a romantic idea but we are bringing it to life.

We will be seeking more local timbers in the near future to produce some interesting pieces from. If people are thinking about how local their food is now why not take it further and look at the furniture in our homes.